Swans-a-swimming

[ionian]

These are a couple of shots I took last year, when the sun remembered that it is allowed to shine, even in the UK. I've spent some time processing them tonight.

1.


This I'm quite happy with: although it's not a picture that fills me with a ton of excitement, it's got classic composition and is a nice scene. Have I overdone the vignette? I like to use the light to highlight my subject in post, and will often use a radial filter to pick out the main elements, reducing exposure elsewhere.


2.


This guy was having a good old scratch. I've had to remove a fair amount of foreground foliage, and I may have oversharpened. His neck is a little noisy at 100% - his head is slightly soft all round - but I think it's within the realms of acceptability.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[IzzieK]

I like both of them Simon -- the first one needs a square crop in my opinion only. the second is OK too, nothing to crow about but my preference between the two is the first one just because.

[NorthernFocus]

I like the first one. IMO the vignette is a bit heavy but works OK for this image.

[Wavelength]

Beauty

[Dave A]

Nice images. The second is my favorite because I like that the Swan is active with ripples extending out.

Dave

[bnnrcn]

I like them both. I would crop #2 from the top just to eliminate the half leaves

[ionian]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Izzy - I guess the advantage of image #1 is that it could work in almost any crop, but I'm content to leave it in 2x3 format for the moment.
Binnur - I had a look at that crop for #2, but cropping out the existing half leaves will cut into the next ones, and losing those means the image is cropped to close. I could clone them out I guess.

I'm not much of a wildlife shooter, and as I mentioned in my first post, these aren't the sort of images that excite me hugely on a personal level. I guess that's the reason they sat on my hard drive for 8 months untouched! However, I'd like to present them as well as I can so thanks for your positive comments.

[Geoff F]

I find that swans are an absolute nightmare to photograph in bright light, Simon. Getting good detail in the white feathers means darkening everything else. You have slightly over exposed its back and lost some detail in the first image.

The second scene, without the bright light, has worked much better for me.

Personally, I'm rarely keen of vignettes and feel that if they are noticeable they are overdone.